Trains: Infant Storytime

All aboard for Infant storytime! In honor of the library’s “STEAM 18” initiative, we put the “STEAM” in our storytime by counting, learning colors, singing songs, and playing percussion instruments, all while reading stories about steam engines and trains.

Books We Shared

Trains

Freight Train by Donald Crews is a classic that teaches babies about the names of the cars as well as the colors. Since it was a board book I created felt pieces to share the images more clearly.

While we read Chugga Chugga Choo Choo by Emma Garcia, I had the parents help me make the clickety clack of the tracks, doing a kind of drumroll using their hands and feet before each page turn. “Clickety clack on the track going to… (drumroll)… the seaside!”

Nursery Rhyme We Shared

Engine, engine number 9
Coming down Chicago Line
If the train goes off its track
Do you want your money back?
Yes? (sway to the side)
No? (sway to the other side)
Maybe so? (sway back and forth)

A little bit faster…

Action Songs & Bounces We Shared

We share a lot of songs, bounces & rhymes during storytime!
You’ll find lyrics/words to those songs & rhymes we shared without CD accompaniment here.

The Wheels on the Train

The wheels on the train go round and round,
Round and round, round and round.
The wheels on the train go round and round,
All through the town.
(step slowly drawing out each “chug”)
The engine on the train goes “Puff, puff, puff;
Puff, puff, puff; Puff, puff, puff.”
The engine on the train goes “Puff, puff, puff”
All through the town.
(raise your hand and shake the bell)
The bell on the train goes “Ding, dong, ding;
Ding, dong, ding; ding, dong, ding.”
The bell on the train goes “Ding, dong, ding,”
All through the town.
The whistle on the train goes Whoo Whoo Whoo
Whoo Whoo Whoo, Whoo Whoo Whoo
The whistle on the train goes Whoo Whoo Whoo
All through the town.

Here Comes the Choo-Choo Train

This is a choo-choo train, (bend arms at elbows)
Puffing down the track. (rotate forearms in rhythm)
Now it’s going forward, (push arms forward, continue rotating motion)
Now it’s going back. (pull arms back, continue rotating motion)
Now the bell is ringing, (pull bell cord with closed fist)
Now the whistle blows. (hold fist near mouth and blow)
What a lot of noise it makes, (cover ears with hands)
Everywhere it goes! (stretch out arms)

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AnnMarie Hurtado

I'm a youth services librarian working in the Children's Room at the Pasadena Central Library. I purchase juvenile nonfiction books for all sites, juvenile Spanish books for all sites, and juvenile DVDs for the Central Library. I do a lot of programs with school-age kids, including Lucha Libros, writing workshops, STEAM Careers in Pasadena, and other STEAM/science programs. I teach 1-2 sessions of Infant/Toddler Storytime each year. I love what I do, working with kids of all ages to inspire them to learn and use their curiosity and imaginations.
Outside of my work at the library, I am also the author of a book, 36 Workshops to Get Kids Writing: From Aliens to Zebras.